welcome! jeremy freese is a professor in sociology at northwestern university. he finds blogging to be a good diversion from insomnia and a far better use of time than television.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

we will fight to the end! (or ten years, as you can't very well expect us to stay away from chicago forever)

I was talking with a friend about New Orleans the other night, and said something I've said to other people: the American Sociological Association should hold its annual meetings in New Orleans at the first opportunity. It's arguably the most sociologically interesting city now, and "arguably" only because there is always Las Vegas (but it isn't like ASA is ever going show its official face there).

But then I thought of something I hadn't before: is it even possible for ASA to meet in New Orleans?

The reason I wondered is that I know the anthropologists have a rule about not holding their annual meetings in states that have sodomy laws. The rule is still in force and excludes Louisiana even though Lawrence v. Texas effectively rendered sodomy laws inert nationwide. I know, this is not the same as the law being repealed, but some states on anthropology's list as sufficiently sodomy friendly to host meetings are places in which the law remains on the books but was nullified by state court decisions (i.e., Massachusetts). (The previous two sentences are all my understanding of the situation, for which I welcome correction in whatever ways it's wrong.)

Interestingly, anthropology also won't meet in Illinois, in protest of the almost-absurdly offensive mascot Chief Illiniwek. In that regard, their resolution shows less resolution, saying:

AAA will cease scheduling Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association in the State of Illinois until such time as the administration and trustees of the University of Illinois... replace their "Chief Illiniwek" mascot with one that does not promote inaccurate, anachronistic and damaging stereotypes of Native American people... If this has not happened in ten years AAA will revisit our position.

I presume this is in recognition of the fact that the sodomy rule mostly keeps the organization from meeting in places where academics wouldn't be inclined to hold national meetings anyway (like Boise and Oklahoma City and Birmingham and Kansas City). But it would be harder to stay away from Chicago forever, especially if there is the idea that the national meetings should be in the Midwest now and then.

Anyway, so far as I can tell from online sources, sociology has historically had all kinds of political considerations influence its choice of meeting sites, but it doesn't have specific hard rules like anthropology does. So: New Orleans! I will personally sponsor some kind of blogging-and-beignets event.

Postscript: I used to have a crazy friend who kept up this inexplicable friendship with someone even crazier than either of us, in part because I think it made her feel more sane/together/normal to be close witness to this walking psychological disaster. If you are a sociologist who sometimes feels despairing about certain trends in the discipline, start trolling around anthropology professional organization websites and look at some of the debates and such that go on there. I mean, I don't want to equate various online manifestations with whatever the larger intellectual and institutional reality might be, but the online disciplinary-presentation-of-self gives the impression of an enterprise both moribund and hellbent on self-evisceration. Of course, there's a certain prominent sociologist who regularly holds up anthropology as his dream for sociology's future, which seems to me like a lemming watching the lemming in front of him plunge off a cliff and saying, "Dude, wait up!"*

31 comments:

Lars
said...

The Southern Sociological Association had their meetings in New Orleans this year. But, given that SSS has recently been a haven for public sociologists, maybe we don't want to follow their lead (kinda like lemmings?).

I've been saying this since the American Library Association announced they were going ahead with their Nola conference this past summer or thereabouts. Logistically, I would think it can be done, since the touristy parts didn't get destroyed. As much.

still, what about mood elevators? NOLA is kinda depressing. not that sociologists should shy away from depressing things, it is just that, given the sociologists i know, i think that ASA in NOLA might call for, at the very least, free liquor.

ASA should definitely be held in New Orleans, and it's a shame this hasn't already been in the works.After Hurricane Katrina the (apparently more socially conscious and efficacious) APA rescheduled their next meeting for New Orleans...it was last month. If NO can handle the APA they can easily handle the ASA meetings.

Madison could host it downtown. If Madison can accommodate football games, it can accommodate ASA. And there would certainly be way more and way better restaurants in walking distance either than when ASA was in Anaheim or the gerontology meetings I attended last year in Anaheim. It's only due to member snobbery that ASA won't even consider a place like Madison (these days; Madison did host like the 2nd ASA meetings).

To be fair, I think the ASA council chooses sites based *partly* on their perceptions of how easy & expensive it would be for the "average" ASA member to fly into and out of the local airport. Or at least, that's the explanation I received for why ASA meetings haven't been in Seattle or Vancouver.

This introduces several potential sources of error, not the least of which is that the relative costs of airline tickets just aren't that easy to predict (anymore): fer instance, as of a few minutes ago, I could buy a RT ticket from SFO-Madison for $317, but a RT ticket from SFO-ORD for the same dates (Oct 19-23, in case anyone cares) would be $450+.

I couldn't win. However, a combined Tina / Jeremy collaborative candidacy probably would win. Sure, co-presidential-candidacies may be against the by-laws, but that would make us an all the more appealing candidate. We need a 100 ASA members to sign a petition and we're on the ballot. We could do a skit as our presidential address, or a two-part hip-hopera.

IMO ASA should actually do something about a social problem, like the reconstriction of NO. It's an embarassment that several other academic organizations have placed a higher priority on this than ASA, the group of professionals that should have been first mover given most of their members' moral principles. If we have to tolerate all this vacuous public sociology prattle, we should at least get something of social value from our professional association.

It will be interesting to see what happens when ASA has to choose between fulfilling its financial commitments (you do know that they had to promise to return to San Francisco in order to move the meetings to Montréal, right?) and its commitment to avoiding cities with labor disputes. I wonder how many people actually read the ASA Council minutes.

Well, I hope ASA schedules NO soon. They've failed to achieve what several other professional associations have managed (i.e. schedule NO on relatively short notice), so we'll just hope that this gets taken care of. Or perhaps we should agitate...

I was looking at ASA Council minutes from 2005 (2006 isn't up yet), and it looked like ASA was booked through 2014 (!). This includes freaking Atlanta again in 2010, with the statement that Atlanta is the "only viable option" in the South because of hurricane season.

"It's only due to member snobbery that ASA won't even consider a place like Madison"

I'm all behind this freesian (and the history books will drop the 'e') movement to get ASA to visit more intersting places, but please tell me you are joking! Snobbery? Huh? Jeremy, you do know that people go to conferences for all sorts of reasons and, in the conference biz, "attractiveness of location" is draw number one. Do you really think that snobbery is the reason you wouldn't get more than a thousand or two at your Madison ASA meetings? Heck, while we are at it, let me put Harrisburg PA in the hat for 2010! Same difference.

If attractiveness of location is number one, why are we going to Atlanta in August twice in seven years?

I think it's also sort of silly to imagine that location would result in a 50+% drop in ASA attendance, unless it was for political boycott reasons or somewhere genuinely remote/expensive. If you want, we could have it in Madison but pretend it was in Chicago, and the commute from the airport would be only slightly more unpleasant than what I had to deal with at ASA Anaheim.

sorry, but i think jeremy is right about the snobbery thing. madison doesn't totally suck as a place to visit. i've had friends stay with me, and they've quite enjoyed things. everyone could make a trip to ella's deli and get tickets to michael feldman's whadaya know.

anyway, in case people thought that my earlier comment at 4:46pm was in favor of getting ASA to come to madison, it wasn't. i was just saying that i think it requires vast amounts of alcohol to live here. i don't know how much alcohol people would need if they were just visiting.

"If attractiveness of location is number one, why are we going to Atlanta in August twice in seven years?"

Agreed, but its not an "objective" rating of attractiveness that the conventioneers have in mind. Lots of sociologists live in college towns. The chance to write off a trip to bigcity is an "attraction," while the idea of leaving collegetown for...collegetown at the height of vacation season is not. LOTS of people a vacation out of ASAs, using it as a jumping off point for family trips and such. While Madison certainly has its charms, "vacation" is not the first thing it calls to mind.

My point was that this can hardly be called "snobbery." Its just the convention business. Why do you think Montreal was such a hit? Heightened interest in what was going on in the meetings or attractive location?